 "Sridhar")
Axiata Group has invested $16 million (about Rs 100 crore) through its subsidiary Axiata Digital. StoreKing has a tie-up with Indian Oil to set up delivery kiosks at its petrol pumps across India and also helps Amazon reach out to customers in the hinterland.
StoreKing’s fundraising comes a day after Amazon said it would invest an additional $3 billion (Rs 19,800 crore) in India taking its total commitment to $5 billion (Rs 33,000 crore).
"From the beginning our goal was to help thousands of small businesses in Rural India to achieve a brighter future by enabling them to use technology. We hope to benefit from Axiata's experience in extensive geography based services and we couldn't thank them enough for investing in the idea of StoreKing. " Sridhar, CEO of StoreKing in a statement.
Storeking has a model where it has tied up with shopkeepers in rural India, who use a tablet to assist local customers to buy online. The shopkeeper handles the cash, deposits online while Storeking delivers the product within 24-48 hours, which can then be collected by the buyer from the same store.
The company currently has 16,000 kiosks spread across 1,200 tier-3 and tier - towns in South and West India from where users can access its service. It fulfils 150,000 orders every month with a base of one million users. Storeking generates a revenue of around Rs 300 crore on an annual basis.
"Storeking has created a platform that solves the fundamental constraints in ours markets with last mile logistics and payments while building trust amongst mass market consumers. It is pivotal in bringing the rest of our consumers into the digital sphere," said Mohd Khairil Abdullah, CEO of Axiata Digital.
With the newly raised capital, Storeking plans to start moving towards its goal of reaching 100,000 retailers by 2017 and 250,000 retailers by 2019. With major presence in South India, the company is now looking to expand its service across the country, filling a gap in the market for online commerce which large players such as Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon do not address.
